Archive for April, 2012

Medicare’s Hospital Compare website evaluates hospital quality. One of the most recent measures to be added to Hospital Compare is a measure of efficiency. The measure calculates a price-standardized, case-mix adjusted measure of spending during period before, during and after a hospital admission. The Healthcare Economist (Jason Shafrin) and a team at Acumen (including Tom […]

U.S. life expectancy after cancer diagnosis is higher than that those for ten European countries. A recent study in Health Affairs cites these statistics as evidence that the more expensive treatments American physicians employ is worth it. “We found that US cancer patients experienced greater survival gains than their European counterparts; even after considering higher US costs, this investment […]

In honor of the start of the NBA playoffs… “After personal fouls, points scored per minute have the largest impact on minutes per game. The result directly contradicts the rhetoric from coaches. Again, coaches tell players to focus on something besides scoring. Players, though, can see that the most effective way to get more playing […]

The movement of mental health care from mental hospitals to treatment in outpatient settings and nursing homes began in the 1950s. Here is how it happened. “The field of medicine where the ‘rediscovery of community’ found an immediately welcome reception was mental health services. A movement away from mental hospitals had already begun in the […]

The answer is because using more intensive services does reduce mortality. This is the finding of a recent JAMA paper. After controlling for patient case mix, the authors examine variation in hospital spending in the last year of a patient’s life. The authors note that “Higher-spending hospitals differed in many ways, such as greater use […]

Many recent healthcare policies aim to consolidate the provision of medical services. For instance, Accountable Care Organizations consolidate providers with the goal of providing seamless, integrated patient care. Consolidation can increase efficiency and (potentially) drive down prices. If a market is highly concentrated, however, problems in a single supplier can lead to shortages. Consider the […]

It is widely known that safety net hospitals provide less intensive care than hospitals whose patient base is mostly commercially-insured. One question is whether safety net hospitals discriminate the care provided based on their patients insurance status. In other words, do commerically insured individuals who visit safety net hospitals receive more care than patients treated […]

Why aren’t physicians more supportive of home births and midwifery? The answer is that it eats into their market share and reduces their income. “[In the 1970s] feminists argued that medical care needed to be demystified and women’s lives demedicalized. They maintained that childbirth was not a disease and normal deliveries did not require hospitalization […]

Grand Junction has been lauded as one place that offers some of the best healthcare in the nation, at the lowest cost. “Grand Junction ranks near the top in Medicare’s Composite Quality of Care index, with a score of 91. That’s 21 points higher than McAllen. But costs in Grand Junction are among the lowest in […]